Saturday, February 2, 2013

Harriet Tubman Day Celebrations 2013

You are invited to attend a series of statewide, national and international programs, events and activities being planned to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Harriet Ross Tubman’s passing. The commemoration was launched in September of last year with Tubman family members gathering at the Reginald Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture in Baltimore. Special guests included Ms. Patricia Ross Hawkins, the great-great-great niece of Harriet and other Tubman descendants from Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Baltimore and Washington, DC.

Harriet Tubman, the queen of the Underground Railroad was born into American slavery in c.1822. Tubman endured almost 30 years of involuntary servitude as a Maryland slave. In 1849 she escaped from bondage. One year later, Tubman began her amazing Underground Railroad career here in Baltimore, first leading her niece and family, and for 10 years leading and assisting dozens of freedom-seekers to liberty, many all the way to Ontario. After serving in the Union Army during the Civil War, she opened a home for the sick and aged.

Follow the Underground Railroad Trip

Guided by her faith and the indomitable power of her will and dedication to ending slavery, Tubman stated “there were two things I had a right to…my freedom or my death,” insisting “she was determined to have one or the other.” Fearless and undaunted, facing tremendous odds (some say she had a $40,000.00 bounty placed on her life, if captured, dead or alive) she carried on becoming the greatest leader of the Underground Railroad. General Tubman later remarked “I nev’r lost a passenger and I’se nev’r ran my train off de track”. She profoundly remarked “I could’ve freed a thousand more if they had known they were slaves”.

The driving force behind many of these commemorative activities is Lou Fields, Baltimore area human rights activist, president of the African American Tourism Council of Maryland, founder and first president of the Greater Baltimore Black Chamber of Commerce, and founder of Black Dollar Exchange, the world's largest exchange and connector for Black-owned businesses, Black chamber of commerces, minority businesses, products and services.. He can be reached at (443) 983-7974.